Animal advocates appear in court
Committing a crime against an animal is committing a crime against society. Our job is to protect them. Mikey Coffman-Garcia, Brawley resident
EL CENTRO — A relatively small but determined group of local animal rights advocates have recently taken to showing up at court hearings for individuals accused of harming their pets or animals.
On Tuesday, about eight individuals were in attendance at the El Centro courthouse for the arraignment of a 31-year-old Imperial man accused of fatally shooting his puppy.
Once that matter was heard by the court, the group hurried over to a different court room to keep tabs on a case involving a 30-year-old Valley woman accused of neglecting to properly care for her pet dog.
“We’re just tired of all the animal abuse that’s going on in the community, and we’re showing up in court to let the judges know that we are the voice of the voiceless,” said Brawley resident Mikey Coffman-Garcia.
Although the informal group sat silently during the court proceedings, the members’ matching T-shirts that read “Animals don’t have a voice … so you’ll never stop hearing mine” made them hard to ignore.
Group members had come to know each other through their prior volunteer work at local animal shelters such as the Humane Society of Imperial County, Coffman-Garcia said.
It was through her involvement with the Humane Society that Garcia said she had gotten to know Jonathan Landa Torres, a former employee who on Tuesday appeared in court for his arraignment in connection to his alleged shooting of his puppy on March 17.
Torres, who remains out on bail, pleaded not guilty to two felony charges stemming from the incident, including negligent discharge of a firearm and killing, maiming or torturing an animal.
“He should know better,” Coffman-Garcia said. “He saw (animal abuse) cases that (the Humane Society) saw.”
She also said that if Torres had only expressed remorse or appeared sorrowful following his arrest, the group wouldn’t likely have felt the need to attend his court proceedings.
Torres’ arraignment was presided over by county Superior Court Judge Diane Altamirano, who also on Tuesday briefly heard the case of Josie Perdomo, a 49-year-old Valley woman who is facing a felony charge of depriving an animal of food, drink or shelter.
Specifically, Perdomo is accused of neglecting to provide care for a pet dog that sustained a tick infestation and which she had taken to the Humane Society on Aug. 25, 2016.
Once in the shelter’s care, Perdomo’s dog was given a bath with insecticide and taken to the El Centro Animal Clinic the following day, where several staff members reportedly spent two to three hours removing more than 1,000 ticks, court records stated.
“The tick infestation was terminal and the dog died the next day,” court records stated.
The clinic’s veterinarian reported that the tick infestation likely went untreated for two to three weeks prior to Perdomo taking it to the shelter, and that the dog’s cause of death was anemia, as a result of it not having any red blood cells left, court records stated.
“Perdomo is just as bad,” Coffman-Garcia said. The Perdomo case was continued to another date. A readiness conference on the matter is scheduled for June 18, while the start of a jury trial is scheduled for the following day.
Also on Tuesday, the animal rights group attended a pretrial hearing for Julia Friedrich, a 30-year-old Valley woman who is accused of allowing her pet dog to go without proper care, a misdemeanor.
Friedrich had also reportedly brought her animal to the Humane Society, where staff reportedly groomed its allegedly unkempt coat, which was matted together, Coffman-Garcia said.
As part of a plea deal offered by the county District Attorney’s Office, Friedrich reportedly faces at least 80 hours of community service as a result of the incident, court records stated.
“Committing a crime against an animal is committing a crime against society,” Coffman-Garcia said. “Our job is to protect them.”